Tuesday, November 27, 2007

The Pride Group, which has interests in real estate and finance, presently has 500-odd rooms under its umbrella. The group's long-term strategy is to take the total number of room to 1,150 in key cities by the end of 2010-2011.

The Pride group already runs five-star properties in Pune, Ahmedabad, Chennai and Nagpur.

Pride's fifth property is under construction in Bangaluru.

Pride Group is also planning to set up properties in Goa, Hyderabad and Mumbai.

Speaking of the ambitious expansion plans, Mr. S P Jain, Chairman, The Pride Group said: “With this key investment from the Kotak Realty Fund, we are now close to finalizing the sources of funds for our expansion plans."

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Sailesh, who always drives us around when we are in Goa, may or may not know much about climate change. But he does know only too well what is happening to his native Goa, of which the extraordinary heat and rain are only the symptoms. They’re chopping down all the trees to build more and more houses; that’s making the weather change, he said. One day all the trees will have gone; what’ll it be like then, what’ll we do? He asks of no one in particular.

His fears are only too well founded. Spurred by non-Goan speculators, rapacious property developers are swamping Goa’s green fields and forests with a lava flow of brick and concrete.Estates, apartment blocks, garish ‘luxury’ villas sprout like venomous mushrooms.

I thought of these, and of what Sailesh had said, and the morning pao and pui were somehow different. They seemed to leave a bitter aftertaste, like a promise broken, a pledge dishonoured. A foretaste of ruin in paradise?

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Harshad Talera’s Smart Inn is a budget hotel high on IQ; a unique concept with those on the move looking for low cost hospitality. The idea is an outcome of over five decades of experience, which the Talera Group has in the hospitality industry and Harshad’s extensive research at Cornell University. Unlike conventional hotels Smart Inn is........

Thursday, November 8, 2007

According to Sonali Lalvani, RMZ's marketing head, discussions are on with leading hospitality brands for developing the properties. RMZ Corp will be investing US$ 2.5 billion to develop the 60 million square feet of real estate, of which 2.1 million square feet will be for the hospitality segment.

"In the next five years, we plan to develop a 60 million square feet spread of commercial space. This will include office space, which will contribute to 45 per cent of the total development. We also plan to develop space for the retail, residential and hospitality sectors."said Sonali Lalvani.

In the last five years since its inception in 2002, the company has developed over 13 million square feet of office space across Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Pune. "We have plans of entering tier II cities and are looking at Cochin, Mangalore, Mysore, Nagpur and Coimbatore for developing commercial space," said Lalvani.

In its latest venture, RMZ Corp has developed a 65,000 square feet retail complex, catering to both the corporate offices located at RMZ Infinity as well as outsiders.

Sharad Pawar, NCP chief and Union agriculture minister, on Tuesday announced that the government would not acquire even one acre of land for the proposed special economic zone (SEZ) of Videocon on the outskirts of Pune. A direct fallout of this announcement is that the Videocon group’s proposed SEZ may now have to be scrapped.

Real estate players like Parsvnath, DLF, Emmar, Unitech, Omaxe are already flooded with their housing units at the northern region like Lucknow, Bhiwadi, Jaipur, Hapur, Haridwar, Rishikesh, Sonepat, Panipat etc. The realty trend in Tier I cities have reached almost at a saturation point. he Tier II cities recorded a yield gap of 10.5 to 11.5%.

Amanora Park Town, located at Hadapsar, is spread over 400 acres and will be a self containing property having schools, college, state-of-the art hospital, restaurants, sports, shopping arcades and entertainment centres—all within walking distance. The township will offers 24x7 power supply, abundant water supply (no need to hire water tankers!)

The Central government has made it mandatory for all states to abolish the Act if they want funds from the ambitious Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Mission (JNNURM) for development of the city. The State government is sitting on the resolution since last few sessions.